Visual Arts Listings

A simple self-portrait show this is not. Captivating works like photographs and paintings incorporating DNA codes are contrasted with a video tape of an artist who drinks tequila until she passes out, while another artist documents in detail her many plastic surgeries. A few of the artists included are Chuck Close, Harriet Casdin-Silver, Denise Marika, and Do-Hoh Suh. Through Nov 9.

COCA

(Center on Contemporary Art), 65 Cedar St, 728-1980.

*Boy

A ten-year-old boy named Gregory Smart is at the center of a new collaborative installation created specifically for CoCA by the artist team of Harrell Fletcher and Jon Rubin. The fictitious Smart comes to life through video taken by a real little boy who wore a video-helmet as he went about his daily routine. The installation includes the video as well as items from the boy's life, like balls and a small-scale soccer field. Through Nov 9.

HENRY ART GALLERY

15th Ave NE at NE 41st St, 543-2280.

Archigram

The Henry scores the fun show of the summer by bringing in Archigram: Experimental Architecture 1961-1974, a touring retrospective organized by Thread Waxing Space in New York. Founded by a sextet of London artist/architects, Archigram did everything but build actual buildings, using drawings, models, collages, and installations to develop utopian ideas with a pop-art look. Their nomadic city of stilt-walking buildings is a dream worthy of the finest science fiction. Through Oct 10.

Hillary Leone and Jennifer Macdonald

New York artists Leone and Macdonald deal with tough social and political issues including the AIDS pandemic, censorship, and racial biases. The five installations and over 40 objects and 2D pieces chosen examine more than a decade of collaboration. The work is refined and delicate, incorporating mixed media with a wide variety of materials such as bronze, paper, silver, needlework, and sand. Through Oct 3.

Jennifer Steinkamp

An installation entitled Phase=Time was created as the first commissioned new work in the series Future Forward, which features artists working with new technologies. Rhythmically pulsating light patterns flow across a scrim, creating a large-scale abstract environment for viewers to become engulfed and slightly nauseous in. Through Oct 3.

SEATTLE ART MUSEUM

100 University St, 654-3100.

Anselm Kiefer and Germanic Tradition

Paintings, works on paper, and sculpture bring contemporary German works into focus. Works by Max Beckmann, Rosemarie Trockel, and others. Through Dec 5.

*Roy McMakin

In an installation dividing the gallery into the layout of a house -- bedroom, bathroom, living room, and dining room -- Seattle artist, furniture maker, and architect McMakin uses stacks upon stacks of generic, store-bought household items, including refrigerators, toilets, tables, and mattresses. Each item stands in for others: a line of toilets becomes a couch, several refrigerators on their backs become a bed. This unconventional stuffing of a traditional living situation creates an environment of carefully calculated manic obsession. Through Oct 31.

SEATTLE ASIAN ART MUSEUM

1400 E Prospect St, Volunteer Park, 654-3100.

Modern Masters of Kyoto

Works by late 19th and early 20th century artists from Kyoto round out the programming for SAAM's "Year of Japan." This collection is owned by Northwest residents Griffith and Patricia Way and contains more than 80 examples of Kyoto-school nihonga -- modern Japanese paintings executed in traditional media formats. Through Feb 13.

TACOMA ART MUSEUM

1123 Pacific Ave, Tacoma, 253-272-4258.

*New Religion

A perfect show in anticipation of the end of the millennium. A look at works with religious allegory at their foundation, including everything from Donald Roller Wilson's hysterically irreverent, yet technically remarkable costumed animal paintings to the tattoo-style renderings of Don Ed Hardy. Other artists include Melissa Weinman, Kathleen Jesse, Kathleen Fruge-Brown, Jon Swihart, Mark Ryden, Tom Uttech, and more. Through Nov 7.

The End

Artists were challenged to create a portrait of the century as we look toward the new millennium, and the 94 selected works range from apocalyptic visions to depictions of cute newborn animals. Through Oct 31.

WING LUKE ASIAN MUSEUM

407 Seventh Ave S, 623-5124.

A Different Battle

An exhibit that explores the stories of Asian Pacific American (APA) veterans who served in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Grenada Invasion, and the Persian Gulf War. The stories are conveyed through written text, audio, and video components. Through April 9, 2000.

OPENINGS

JULIE CUSTER/TERESA REDDEN

Two ambitious young sculptors working in metal and fabric. When they team up there is always a fine combination of strength and tenderness. Emerging artists to watch. Robbie Mildred Gallery, 307 E Pike St, 903-1246. Sat Sept 11 through Oct 14.

*JAMES MARTIN

A man in a red cart, wearing knee socks and high heels, is pulled along by a fish while a goose flies overhead with a sailor attached like a hot air balloon. This is the world of James Martin, and there is no better storyteller around. Martin, a contemporary of Morris Graves and Mark Tobey, paints his wild narratives in gouache on paper, or paper bag. Foster/White Gallery-Kirkland, 126 Central Way, 425-822-2305. Thurs Sept 9 through Oct 10.

RICHARD MARQUIS

A new series of vessels and sample boxes made with murrine, or mosaic glass, in the form of animal silhouettes. Elliott Brown Gallery, 619 North 35th St #101A, 547-9740. Fri Sept 10 through Oct 2.

R. EUGENE PARNELL

We aren't used to questioning what we see in museums, but Parnell's Lost Naturalists of the Pacific is a fictitious account, complete with artifacts, of the history of colonialism in the Pacific. The exhibition is a result of years of development and time spent in Hawaii, Indonesia, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St, Kirkland, 425-822-7161. Thurs Sept 9 through Oct 9.

Bennett is one of the brightest young artists in Seattle, and her new body of abstract works on paper and canvas combine paint, mixed media, stitching, and printmaking. Whatever her medium, Bennett's work is always consistent, smart, and remarkably unpretentious. Zeitgeist, 161 S Jackson. Through Oct 6.

MARSHA BURNS

New photos by one of the Northwest's most celebrated photographers from her recent travels through Europe, Africa, and Asia. Curated by Margery Aronson. The Norton Building, 801 Second Ave. Through Oct 16.

MARK CALDERON

Calderon's recent work is an obvious departure as he is utilizing modified cast cement to create serious and stately mid-sized sculptures. The surfaces of the simple forms are patinated with acids, and of all things -- urine. Greg Kucera Gallery, 212 Third Ave S, 624-0770. Through Oct 6.

FANDRA CHANG

Chang, a Los Angeles-based artist, creates large, mesmerizing, acid-colored paintings on canvases that look as if they were computer generated, but are meticulously hand worked. This play with what is original and what is real gives the abstract work a strong conceptual backbone. Jim Harris Gallery, 309A Third Ave S, 903-6220. Through Oct 2.

LINDA CONNOR

Although Connor travels the globe, her photographs don't read as travel documentary. The black and white photographs carry images of sacred places and indigenous people and are lush, precise, and hauntingly spiritual without being over-stated. Photographic Center Northwest, 900 12th Ave, 720-7222. Through Sept 28.

PATRICK HOLDERFIELD

911 has resurrected its window installation program with a vengeance, working with some of the best artists in town and presenting truly provocative works. Currently Holderfield, a Northwest artist on the rise, has installed Exodus: A Fable where taxidermy forms play out a twisted little story about animal friends who invent a robot that eventually turns on them. 911 Media Arts Center (windows), 117 Yale Ave N, 682-6552. Through Sept 26.

*HORSEHEAD INTERNATIONAL 1999

Thirty-six artists from the Northwest and beyond have created site specific works on the grounds of Sand Point. With the map provided they are all easy to find, and the setting is hard to beat. Sand Point, 7400 Sand Point Way NE, 282-2935. Through Sept 30.

Keating's work is profoundly lonely and clinical in its presentation of architectural elements floating in space. With the absence of a human presence, these studies become abstract objects without references to environment, scale, or time. Fife has created a collection of 1950s haute couture dresses constructed from archival cardboard. The crappy and organic nature of his media of choice clashes wonderfully with the self-conscious presence of the elite nature of high fashion. Esther Claypool Gallery, 617 Western Ave, 264-1586. Through Oct 2.

VLADIMIR KUSH

Kush tags his work as "ultra-realism," a concept borrowed from a Spanish philosopher whose theory it was that decisional imagery resonates with universal thought. It is hard to determine what is real inside of paintings within paintings packed with complex iconography. Davidson Gallery, 313 Occidental Ave S, 624-4588. Through Oct. 2.

*JAMES LAVADOUR

Lavadour's landscape paintings and prints carry with them the dramatic sense of the awesome power of nature. Fire and smoke distort the mountains and the sky, leaving a fiery scene at the forefront of the composition. The intense coloration almost exudes heat in these remarkable works. Grover Thurston Gallery, 309 Occidental Ave S, 223-0816. Through Oct 2.

ANDREA MAKI

Big mixed media collages, compositionally straightforward but bold, and executed with great technical prowess. Cisco and Silver also includes a projection piece. Eyre/Moore Gallery, 913 Western Ave, 624-5596. Through Oct 6.

A solo exhibition by one of the world's most renowned sculptors. Featured will be works in graphite, marble, bronze, galvanized steel, and his well-known Akari sculptural lamps. George Suyama, one of the Northwest's foremost architects, created an intricate setting for the works. Brian Ohno Gallery, 155 S Main St, 667-9572. Through Oct 9.

Los Angeles artist Derek Stroup shows a series of drawings and sculpture of rooftop TV antennas in a show titled Field Guide. The drawings are in India ink on typewriter paper -- fittingly obsolescent media for depicting the outmoded technology of the antennas. In the drawings and in a more recent set of delicate, realistic sculptures, Stroup creates a taxonomic classification of these vestigial structures. The LittleTheatre, 608 19th Ave E, 329-2629. Through Oct 17.

RON VAN DONGEN/TAKATOMO USUI

Influenced by Karl Blossfeldt, this Dutch photographer takes his subjects from his own garden, capturing sharp focused details of flowers on gelatin silver prints. Usui's large-scale landscapes of Japan and the Northwest are painted with layers of acrylic color with an overlay of photo-emulsion on paper. G. Gibson Gallery, 122 S Jackson, Suite 200, 587-4033. Through Oct. 16.

*ROBERT YODER

Simply, Yoder cuts up signs and puts them back together. It is an absolute joy that he allows his work to be that simple, not feeling the need to muck up his complex abstract creations with anything other than a wax finish. The immediate recognition of the materials and the deconstructed graphic elements of signage give the new compositions a strong foundation, yet the eye doesn't instinctually try to reconstruct the original sign, it just follows the resulting dynamic lines and shapes. Howard House, 2017 Second Ave, 256-6399. Through Sept 26.